


Change in Condition

by El Staplador (elstaplador)



Category: Iolanthe - Sullivan/Gilbert
Genre: Community: 52fandoms, M/M, Obscure & British, Post-Canon, erotic possibilities of cobweb, implied adultery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-05-23
Packaged: 2017-12-12 18:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/814795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elstaplador/pseuds/El%20Staplador
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lord Tolloller is having trouble adapting, both to being a married man and to being a fairy. Happily, he can share his concerns with his oldest friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Change in Condition

'My dear Thomas!' the former Lord Mountararat exclaimed. 'What on earth are you doing?'

Lord Tolloller (as was) regarded him with affected nonchalance, from his inverted position suspended from a cobweb. 'Merely adjusting to my new condition,' he murmured. 'I had hoped to master the art in privacy...'

'Come, come, Thomas – we were at school together; you need keep no secrets from _me_ ,' Mountararat said. 'By the way, your left foot is caught in that thread there, and you'd do better if you folded your wings before trying to right yourself.'

'I had surmised as much – my dear George,' Tolloller grunted. 'It isn't so easy as you seem to think.' He flailed wildly with his free leg and both arms, until he at last unwound himself and resumed his usual orientation, albeit suspended some distance above the ground.

'There, you see: it's quite simple,' Mountararat remarked. 'Adjusting to your new condition, you say? As a married man?'

'No – as a fairy – which should be quite obvious. Had I thought that matrimony would have brought with it such undignified activities, I would have thought twice. But there we go.'

'You could have married and remained a mortal, of course. The lovely Phyllis -'

'My dear George! I beg you, do not allude to that painful decision! The pain of the loss of the beauteous Phyllis (to whom be granted connubial bliss eternal, by all means) was as nothing to that of the mere _thought_ of losing you, my childhood playmate, the friend of my schooldays, the companion of my youth, the...'

Perceiving that his childhood playmate, etc, had found his well of inspiration running dry, Mountararat said, 'Skip that part.'

'Very well. I say, then, that my transformation into husband, not to mention fairy, is only rendered bearable by the knowledge that _you_ share it, my childhood playmate, the friend -'

'Quite. But what of your fairy bride?'

'She is chiefly occupied with dancing, drinking dewdrops and, on alternate Tuesdays, singing. Yours?'

'The same. It is not how I expected a wife to conduct herself,' Mountararat said dolefully, 'but there – I may have been wrong about the human variety, too.'

'Perhaps,' said Tolloller, bobbing up and down on his cobweb. 'At all events, I find the contract considerably less – _binding_ – than I had anticipated, and, freed as we are from the trammels of our legislative duties – whatever they were; I find I don't quite recall the details – time in Arcadia seems to hang heavy on my hands. And yet -' he added hastily, 'I find that, conversing with you, this past quarter of an hour has hardly seemed ten minutes!'

'My dear Thomas!' Mountararat exclaimed, greatly affected. 'Indeed, I could say the same, of the same quarter of an hour!'

'I am never bored with you, my dear George.'

'Nor I with you – at least,' Mountararat said, for he was an honest man, for a politician, 'I'd rather be bored with you than without. It's how we always used to pass the time.'

'So it is. Well, if you will help me down from here, we can pass the time in the old fashion.'

A thoughtful smile spread over Mountararat's countenance. 'No: I think I shan't. I fancy your current predicament offers intriguing possibilities, and, after all, my dear Thomas, given the changes in our circumstances, one must be adaptable.' He spread his wings and kicked off from the ground.

'I suppose,' Tolloller said airily, 'one must.'


End file.
